Posted on 02/01/2006 12:45:32 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
WASHINGTON (AP) -
0201dvs-state-union President Bush, opening the fall campaign season, is painting Democrats as defeatist for criticizing his march to war in Iraq and protectionist for questioning new trade deals and tax-cut extensions.
Grumbling Democrats looking for advantage in Bush's weak poll numbers and burgeoning scandals in GOP congressional ranks refused to cede center stage as the president laid out his 2006 priorities Tuesday night in his fifth State of the Union address.
Encumbered by some of the lowest approval ratings of his presidency, Bush hoped to take charge of the agenda at the start of a year that will see races for most of Congress and 36 governorships.
Bush has been beset by criticism that his optimistic messages of recent years haven't squared with the worries many Americans feel over high energy and health care costs, the costly and deadly Iraq war and continuing terrorist threats. He acknowledged the anxieties of "a period of consequence," while still expressing confidence in the future.
"Sometimes it can seem that history is turning a wide arc, toward an unknown shore," he told a joint session of Congress and a national prime-time television audience. "We will finish well."
As has become traditional, Bush was hoping to capitalize on the attention surrounding the year's biggest speech by delivering a recap Wednesday in Nashville, Tenn.
In Tuesday's speech, the president, hampered by big budget deficits, offered a modest program. He declared that America must break its long dependence on Mideast oil and rebuked critics of his stay-the-course strategy for the unpopular war in Iraq.
"America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world," Bush said.
Rejecting calls for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, he said, "There is no peace in retreat." He also slapped at those who complain he took the country to war on the erroneous grounds that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.
"Hindsight alone is not wisdom," Bush said. "And second-guessing is not a strategy."
Bush declared "the state of our union is strong and together we will make it stronger." But Democrats said Bush was living in a fantasyland.
"It just wasn't credible to hear him talk about making America more secure and honoring our troops or making America energy independent or making health care more affordable without hearing him explain why he's done just the opposite for the last five years," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
"Our country is ready for change and a new direction," Democratic Party head Howard Dean said.
Figures on the sidelines gave a look at the nation's sharp divide over Iraq. Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a fallen soldier whose summertime vigil near Bush's Texas ranch reinvigorated the anti-war movement, was arrested and escorted from the visitors section of the House gallery after causing a disruption just before the president spoke.
First lady Laura Bush, meanwhile, had among the guests in her box the relatives of a Marine killed in Iraq.
The partisan mood in the packed House chamber was evident as Bush turned, over halfway through his remarks, to Social Security, the subject of his signature initiative from last year's address that was indefinitely cast aside after even Republicans balked.
Democrats stood in unison to cheer the president's acknowledgment of congressional inaction on his proposal to add private investment accounts to the government retirement program - an idea nearly universally opposed by Democrats.
Republicans then took their turn, delighting with loud applause in Bush's finger-wagging rejoinder that "the rising cost of entitlements is a problem that is not going away."
Bipartisanship erupted briefly as the president went on to make his modest call for the creation of a commission, made up of members from both parties, to examine the impact of the retirement of the baby boomer generation on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
He invited Democrats as well as Republicans to provide "good advice" on the mission in Iraq and praised "honorable people in both parties" who are proposing to strengthen ethical standards amid the influence-peddling scandal surrounding disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
But even as the president steered away from directly targeting Democrats, he left no doubt he was drawing clear distinctions with the other party, and will continue to do so as the campaign progresses.
He warned against the danger to the nation's future economic vitality of choosing to "shut ourselves off from trade and opportunity," a reference to overwhelming Democratic opposition last year to the new Central American Free Trade Agreement.
He termed it irresponsible to allow "a massive tax increase" if previously passed cuts, set to expire, are not permanently extended.
Many of the solutions Bush offered were repackaged versions of ideas he has sounded from the beginning of his presidency.
He announced a competitiveness agenda that is the focus of travel later in the week to Minnesota, New Mexico and Texas. The initiative, a total of $136 billion over 10 years, includes training for 100,000 math and science school instructors and greater public spending on basic science research.
Bush proposed greater tax benefits for health saving accounts, in which people who purchase high-deductible coverage can contribute money tax-free to 401(k)-like savings plans.
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On the Net:
White House: http://whitehouse.gov
Democratic Party: http://www.democrats.org
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or
If it quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, acts like a duck, it's a duck.
OMG! She is absolutely horrid. What a disgraceful, dangerous and unhinged pig. She should be kept far away from civilization.
They're worse than defeatists... they're unAmerican and some are actually trying to render us a defeat.
"Our country is ready for change and a new direction," Democratic Party head Howard Dean said.And if you could stop spinning for a moment, Howie Baby... what direction would that be?
"Hindsight alone is not wisdom, and second guessing is not a strategy."
Yeah, I cheered when he said that.
That was the money quote for the first part of the speech. Thanks for posting it, as I needed to have it for someone this morning.
And I thought the Democrats had painted themselves as DEFEATIST, PESSIMISTIC, NEGATIVE AND UNHELPFUL on EVERY agenda item.
Please.....when they start polling between 10-15 million people on what they think, then I will start to listen to polls. The 1000 or so people that they sample is a joke. Not worth the time to read the polls.
Keep going, Dubya...don't listen to any of these stupid polls..
He doesn't have to do anything like that
The Dems do a fine job all by themselves
She's lying according to the officials...and according to the photo evidence. Typical liberal. What doesn't make sense is why the liberals think anyone should take them seriously when they are consistently dishonest...and demonstrably so.
Dems painted THEMSELVES as Defeatists by their OWN ACTIONS last night!! I could not believe the way they acted!!! I think even Joe Schmoe will see them in a different light!!
Because they are! President Bush would throw something out there for them to cheer about, and then turn that enthusiasm around onto them! It was a night of traps and exposure.
Which means the whole report is bogus.
That is correct and bloggers, the RNC ought to be pushing those points on the NET. The fact is the Dems have not been the loyal oppositon but obstructionists and the Sit down Dems were so obvious in their anti-Americanism on so many issues that the fly over nation could not miss the differences between the leaders or parties.
Cindy is pathetic. She can't even protest right. She was out of there before the President even entered the chamber.
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